thanksgiving

for thanksgiving this year we flew to spokane, just like last year. last year traveling was a breeze and was clearly the better option.

however, this year was sooo different. never underestimate traveling with two kids with 1 of them being an infant. yikes. the snow in spokane didn't help, so we ended up getting stuck in sea-tac for a few extra hours then i somehow ended up flying standby ALONE with riley and sonja. riley was so so anxious to get out of the airport and onto the plane, that i decided, "oh well, how bad can it be, it's only a 45 minute flight". well, we did survive, but there was about 5 minutes of pure stress for me. walking onto the plane with sonja in the carrier, carrying two bags and holding riley's hand all the while having EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the plane watch me because they were all seated. and then having riley chant the whole way that she wants to put down her tray and is being otherwise difficult. taking off my coat, putting the things away, asking someone to switch seats so riley can sit next to me, buckle up, nurse...you get the picture. meanwhile i'm sweating profusely and just praying that riley doesn't start screaming. riley was so so close to a full-on meltdown (it was clearly naptime at this point) i somehow managed to distract her enough to hold it together. we got there ok and tyler flew in a few hours later.

it really put a damper to our thanksgiving morning...but we were greeted in spokane that afternoon by lots of snow and tyler's mom, brother and nephew. we spent the next few days basically lounging and seeing a few family members/friends. we returned saturday night and by that point riley had already come down with her nasty bug. i'm blaming the airport for that one!

riley & bjorn drinking hot cocoa while watching charlie brown's thanksgiving

the chef and her turkey!

the kids table

post thanksgiving dinner sledding

i think we may have a red-head on our hands

riding in the back of jon's truck to drive down hill to find more sledding

we got to spend the afternoon with our dear and long time friends troy & jenny. tyler grew up in spokane with the two of them. they just had their 2nd son so are home from their work overseas. we were so blessed to see them and spend time with them. no group shot though...